Deepsea Challenge 3D

(James) There are human footprints on the moon.

and Rover is exploring

the surface of Mars.

We can Google

a satellite picture

of any place

on the Earths surface.

So we often think

that our planet

has been

completely explored.

But the depths of the oceans

remain a mystery

and the extreme depths

have barely been glimpsed.

Down there is the last

great frontier of our world.

There are 12 trenches

that are over 4 miles deep.

Theyre thousands of miles long and have a combined area

greater than North America.

7'hats a dark continent down there, waiting to be explored.

Unseen by human eyes because the machines dont exist to take us there.

Its my dream

to build such a machine,

and get inside it

and dive to the deepest

places in the world,

to explore them

with my own eyes.

I started preparing for these dives when l was a kid,

getting in a cardboard box.

Close the Iid, and imagine

it was a submarine.

Boosh.

Drawing with a crayon,

you know, some gauges.

Fue|and.

depth.

Yeah, I was a real

science geek, you know,

but for me it was all about trying to understand the world,

understand the limits

of possibility.

Hey, little buddy.

I think it was from

being a kid in the '60s

when we were doing

so much exploration.

From going to the moon and Jacques Cousteau was exploring the oceans

and, you know,

I just loved that stuff.

I couldnt think of anything cooler than to be a deep ocean explorer.

I can remember the first time that the deep ocean captured my imagination.

It was, you know, when Trieste went to the bottom of the Challenger Deep.

(TV) The Bathyscaphe would pass its ultimate test in 1960,

its third model carrying Piccards son, Jacques, and Don Walsh

35, 000 feet down

into the Mariana Trench.

(James)The Bathyscaphe Trieste was an amazing machine for its time.

A massive

150-ton steel balloon

filled with gasoline

for flotation.

It had a 14-ton

pressure sphere

for the crew

slung underneath.

(Don)

Oxygen, one thin bar.

Scrubber fans on.

[tapping]

Damn it.

Tachometers taken a hit.

We go without it.

(James)Inside the sphere,U. 8. Navy Lieutenant

Don Walsh

and scientist Jacques Piccard

would pilot Trieste to the bottom of Challenger Deep.

It was a dive into history.

But no one

has been back since.

Just like on Trieste, the heart of our new sub is a steel sphere,

forged in fire.

52 years later, theres still no better solution.

The sphere is natures perfect shape for resisting pressure.

And its going to protect me from the crushing force down at the bottom.

Over 16,000 pounds

per square inch.

Thats like having two Humvees

stacked on your thumbnail.

its taken us three years to design and build this sphere.

We have to heat treat

the steel...

to be strong enough

to withstand the weight

of seven vertical miles

of water.

We have to know that

the sphere is safe.

If it buckles on a real dive,

itII implode

at hypersonic speed

and I get chummed into a meat cloud in about two microseconds.

The clinks I heard when we tested it the first time,

when we got rid of the stress cracking, that hasnt happened.

Its 16,000 psi.

Looks like weve done it.

Yeah, you got to be happy with that. We're all the way to the top.

So, its as you predicted?

It's as we predicted.

Well done.

Good on you, Ron.

When you design technology

to do something new,

its going to look strange.

The Deepsea Challenger

is a vertical torpedo.

its designed to scream down through the water column at high speed.

The reason for that is wed just rather spend the time at the bottom

working, exploring, than going through seven miles of water.

There are certain fish

that actually will hover

over the reef

in a vertical position.

So, nature provided an example

of the fact that its not crazy to think that a submersible

can move through the water

in an upright position.

Deepsea Challenger

is not a stunt vehicle

to just go down

and set a depth record.

its designed from the ground up as a science platform.

Theres a hydraulic manipulator arm for taking samples.

A sample tray

in the science door.

There are push cores

for taking sediment.

A payload bay

for instruments.

And two 3D cameras, one on the boom and one on the arm.

Every single thing on this vehicle has to be built from scratch

to withstand

the crushing pressure.

its just this kind of

ragtag group

working in this

little tiny shop

next to a plumbing supply

place on that side

and a plywood supply

place on that side.

You know, nobody even knows

what were doing in here.

And one of the most amazing things about this vehicle

is that it shrinks over two inches during the dive from pressure.

Thats enough to shear

aircraft grade bolts.

Yeah, its still got

to go in quite a way.

(James) So the sphere is actually held onto the sub by straps.

But were also fighting

the pressure of time.

Our expedition ship

just arrived

and were supposed to leave in less than three weeks, but we dont have a sub.

its still in pieces

all over the shop.

How big a problem is that?

I need to know when were going to see some action on that sub,

so we can start doing

some integration.

If you're saying

3rd of January

were going

to have it wired out,

were still weeks away

from getting integration done.

(James) We have to have an integration schedule.

I want that schedule put up on the wall right over there, okay?

Whos got to have their stuff plugged in, ready to test, when.

And everybody is going to be individually accountable for their stuff to that schedule.

Weve got a ship sitting at that pier down there with nothing to do.

Right now its just on the clock like a taxi meter.

A taxi meter at $35,000 a day.

Jims management style is often to put people under pressure

and get results from that

and...

that can work really well, but when you're in a R&D project,

sometimes things just

arent going to work.

(Dave) And weve got some mechanical problems here

that well solve

over the next couple of weeks.

Hopefully before Christmas Eve, if we can do it.

If not, it will be Boxing Day.

(James)

Were not going to compromise.

You dont compromise.

Not on the stuff

that keeps you alive.

The most important thing

is the weight system.

Basically you strap a bunch of weight on the sub at the surface

and then you let go and the thing sinks like a rock.

So, literally,

if the weights dont come off,

the sub doesnt come up.

(James) So when youve got a system thats survival critical,

the only way to be confident is to test it over and over and over and over.

When you dive to the bottom of the ocean you have to face the fact

that there are a hundred

horrible ways to die.

In the unlikely event that there is a break in any of the seals,

in even the penetrator or the hatch... Closing hatch.

the water will bust through with the strength of which it could cut a man in half.

Theres the risk of fire.

Its Jims personal nightmare.

Go! Drill.

Fire, fire, fire!

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